


Rained On

by iwaseliteonce



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and More Angst, Character Death, Dark, Did I Mention Angst?, EFA Fic Challenge 2018, Emotional Hurt, F/F, Rain prompt, Wayhaught - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 11:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14669907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwaseliteonce/pseuds/iwaseliteonce
Summary: It wasn’t supposed to rain. Not like this.(One shot for EFA Fic Challenge 2018)





	Rained On

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone. Just a quick note to ask you to carefully note and mind the tags. The fic you are about to read will twist, and become very dark. If you are not comfortable with dark, angsty fics that do not have a happy ending, I would skip this one.
> 
> Carry on.

It wasn’t supposed to rain. Not like this. 

 

The driving, pouring rain makes working the night shift so much worse. Everything is slick, dark, and damp. The world feels heavier, seemingly endless and daunting. 

 

The road is almost too dark without streetlights or other cars to guide tired eyes. The yellow paint has faded, barely reflecting the light and making the boundaries visible.

 

The roads are quieter, yes, but that’s not always good news. Sometimes, it’s terrible news, unknowingly predicting what’s to come. 

 

Everything is different when the sky opens up, when the rain falls and falls and falls. It’s so different when you can’t see a storm brewing over the mountains, or far in the distance. 

 

Everything is different tonight. So different. 

 

\----------------

 

Nicole’s phone beeps in the cup holder, briefly lighting up the dark car. 

 

Waverly Earp

1 iMessage

 

Waverly Earp 

2 iMessages

 

Waverly Earp

3 iMessages

  
  


_ Hi, baby. _

_ Hope it’s not too bad out there. The rain is so loud on the roof. _

_ Be safe, Nicole. Please. _

 

Nicole’s light smile fades. Storms scare Waverly; maybe they always have. They make her blood chill in her veins, and her hands shake. The blinding flashes of lightning and rolling percussive thunder always seem to draw a deep shiver from her spine. The fear is deep, a kind that even Wynonna can’t lessen. Only Nicole can calm a terrified Waverly Earp. 

 

Nicole considers how to respond. A text message won’t be enough. Waverly needs her, she needs more. 

 

It only takes two rings. 

 

“Nic?”

 

“Hey, baby. You okay?”

 

“Hmm? Yeah, I’m fine.”

 

Teeth click and chatter loudly in Nicole’s ear as thunder booms on Waverly’s end of the line. A whimper bleeds through only for a moment, then it’s anxious silence. 

 

“You sure about that?”

 

“Don’t. I’m tired, Nic. I don’t want to-”

 

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. You’re scared, and I’m being a jerk.”

 

“You’re not. I just… My heart is beating so fast. It’s like I’m nervous, but I’m not. Not really. I just, I hate storms. They make me think about…”

“About what, Wave?”

 

“...Being alone, mostly. About Daddy and Willa being gone, about Wynonna leaving. I’m always alone when it rains like this. I hate it.”

 

“Waverly, hey. Listen to me for a second. You’re not alone, not anymore. Wynonna’s right down the hall. One of the boys is probably there. My guess is Doc, he seems to be the favorite. This week anyway.”

 

A laugh. It’s barely there, but it’s enough. 

 

“In a few hours, I’ll be there, too. I’ll be right there under the covers with you. Nowhere to be tomorrow. We can sleep in, maybe make some pancakes or somethin’. We’ll take the day to just… be for a little while. Think you can make it a few more hours, Wave? Can you wait this out?”

 

“Yeah, I think so.”

 

“Settle down for me, love. It’ll help, I promise.”

 

“Don’t want to. Not without you.”

 

“I know, but you need sleep, Wave. Are you in bed?”

 

Waverly hums, and Nicole smiles against the phone pressed to her cheek and ear. 

 

“Good. Lay down for me, okay? Just breathe for a second.”

 

Shifting, adjusting blankets and pillows. Waverly is back, and whispering.

 

“Okay.”

 

“There, you sound a little better. Now, relax for me. Know this- everything’s okay, Wave. You’re home, Wy’s home. I’m tucked in my warm, dry car, just watchin’ the rain fall, and the sky light up. In a few hours, I’ll be home, too. Everything’s totally fine, baby. We’re all safe.”

 

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I overreacted.”

 

“You didn’t. You’re allowed to be scared, you know. You’re allowed to feel things. I get it- storms can be scary. They don’t have to be, but they can be.”

 

“I just… I really don’t like them, Nicole.”

 

“I know, Wave. Everything’s gonna be okay though. I’ll be home soon. The sun will be up soon, and everything will be better.”

 

Waverly sighs, and Nicole knows she needs a softer voice in her ear.

 

“Storms always end, Waverly. This’ll pass, and the world’ll be bright again. You know that, right?”

 

“Yeah, I do.”

 

“Good. Settle for me, baby. Just a little more, okay?”

 

Nicole can picture it- Waverly tucked under too many blankets, face barely visible. The room will be dark, lit only by occasional flashes of lightning. She’ll look small, but she’s there. 

 

A quiet hum again. Close enough. 

 

“Rest, Wave. I’ll be home soon. I love you, you know.”

 

“I do. I love you, too, Nic. Thank you.”

 

“Never have to thank me, Wave.”

 

“Please be careful, Nicole.”

 

“I plan on it. Don’t think I’ll even pull anyone over this shift. Dark nights, rain and blue lights don’t mix.”

 

“Why’s that?”

 

“Well, the lights are pretty bright. They can make it hard for drivers to see me. Could temporarily blind ‘em or illuminate my car, but not the car I pull over.”

 

“Oh...”

 

“Hey, I’m good. I’m super smart, remember? I’ll be safe, Wave. Promise.”

 

“I know. Just, come home to me?”

 

“‘Course I will, soon as I can. You get some sleep.”

 

“Okay. Night, Officer.”

 

“G’night, love.”

 

The calls ends, and Nicole sighs. Five more hours. 

 

\----------------

 

It wasn’t supposed to happen. Not like this. 

 

Waverly Earp

3 iMessages

 

Waverly Earp 

4 iMessages

 

Waverly Earp 

Missed Call

 

It all happened so fast, too fast. The lights atop the cruiser are still flashing, still spinning in a perfect pattern. Endlessly spinning without sound. 

 

Red and blue. 

Red and blue. 

Red and blue. 

Red and blue. 

 

The lights are on, but no one’s home. 

 

The rain’s stopped now, hours after it was meant to slow and dwindle down to mist. It’s stopped, but it’s too late. 

 

Waverly Earp 

5 iMessages

 

Waverly Earp 

2 Missed Calls

 

Her phone won’t stop vibrating in the cup holder. 

 

Waverly Earp 

6 iMessages

 

Waverly Earp 

7 iMessages

 

Waverly Earp 

3 Missed Calls

 

There’s no returned text or outgoing call. The phone keeps vibrating, keeps lighting up, keeps ringing, to no avail.

 

It’s radio silence. 

 

\----------------

 

Storms scare Waverly; maybe they always have. The seemingly calm silence after a storm can be worse though. It’s eerie, sometimes spine-tingling. It’s the kind of fear only Nicole can fix, with her quiet voice and soft hands. Only she hasn’t yet. 

 

Where is she? 

 

In the early morning light, nothing has changed. The bed is still half-full, and the fear is still heavy. Nicole isn’t sliding under the covers, or whispering quiet words. She’s not half asleep on her side, or curled around Waverly like a too-tall koala. 

 

She’s not there. 

 

Why won’t the phone ring? Why won’t Nicole respond? 

 

The silence changes. Someone is here. 

 

Waverly’s bedroom is lit in red and blue, 

red and blue, 

red and blue, 

red and blue. 

 

Her mouth dries, while her eyes grow wetter by the second. 

 

“No.”

 

Outside her window, Sheriff Nedley steps out of his vehicle, and holds his hat tightly in his hands. He forces a deep breath, and walks to the front door of the homestead too slowly. He looks haunted. 

 

“No.”

 

Waverly can hear a soft knock at first, then a firmer one echoing downstairs. She can faintly hear Wynonna stir and curse. She hears everything, but her legs won’t carry her. She can’t move at all, her body a statue built on fear, and knowing what you can never forget. 

 

“No.”

 

Wynonna’s voice in her doorway breaks the silence.  _ It breaks everything.  _

 

“Baby girl, you need to come downstairs.”

 

No.

 

\----------------

 

The story hurts so much worse the second time. 

 

Hours after Nicole had quietly explained that she rarely pulls cars over at night, hours after finding out the bright lights can blind a driver, she’s hearing the same explanation again. This time, it’s coming from the wrong person. The lips are wrong, masked by facial hair. The tone is wrong, too deep and scratchy. The story is the same, but the person is wrong. 

 

“Waverly, do you understand what’s happened?”

 

No. 

 

“Baby girl, say something. Please.”

 

“I… I want to see the car.”

 

“Wav-”

 

“No. I wanna to see the car. She… I can’t see her, so I wanna see the car. Take me to the car, Nedley.”

 

“Waverly, you can’t unsee this. Are you sure?”

 

“Yes.”

 

\----------------

 

The damage is worse than expected for a car Nicole hadn’t even been sitting inside. The vehicle with the caved-in side is not a police cruiser, it belongs to a woman Waverly’s never heard of, never met. She’d been driving erratically, slamming into mailboxes, and skidding across the empty road in her efforts to get home faster. Nicole watched the woman demolish yet another mailbox, before pulling out of her hiding spot, and turning on the flashing lights. The woman was apologetic, yet distant somehow. Something was bothering her.

 

Nicole would never let that slide. She worried about everyone, even complete strangers. As the Officer moved into full view of the rolled down window, a new car careened off of the road, and smashed into the driver’s side door of the Toyota Camry.

 

It had smashed into the door, and Nicole, at a high rate of speed.

 

It had smashed into Nicole.

 

_ Nicole. _

 

The road is closed. It has to be when an officer is down, when a civilian is slightly injured. There’s work to do- evidence to gather, interviews to conduct. 

 

Waverly drags in a breath. The road should be closed if Nicole is gone. 

 

The driver of the car that struck Nicole won’t stop crying. He won’t stop making those sounds. He just won’t stop. It’s an awful sound, one that should only escape when alone. It’s a sound Waverly should be making, but there’s nothing. 

 

Waverly should hate him. She should be screaming and crying, or begging, or asking a thousand quedstions. Instead, she says nothing, now blankly staring at the car she’s seen a hundred times. It’s Nicole’s car. Was Nicole’s car. 

It looks so normal. The paint is still intact, the lights are still on, the door is closed in that way Nicole always closed it. Pressed in, but not completely shut, so she can get back in quickly and easily. 

 

It looks normal, but it’s wrong. 

 

The driver finally stops crying, everything is radio silence now. The rain has stopped, the birds are still hidden in the trees, no cars are on the road. No cars on are on the road Waverly will have to drive every single day for the rest of her life. A road she’ll always see, as long as she stays in Purgatory. 

 

The town name, Purgatory, has never felt so appropriate. 

 

Everything is silent. Everything, except the empty police cruiser. 

 

The irony of Frightened Rabbit playing quietly in Nicole’s car is lost on no one. 

 

_ “Everything has changed, not for better or for worse _

_ Are they tears or is it rain? _

_ Doesn't matter anymore _

_ In the end they're both the same _

_ We're less filthy than before _

_ Didn't ask for a downpour _

_ Didn't need a flood _

_ Still I think I found the answer somewhere in the mud” _

 

Waverly just listens for a long time. She takes in every lyric, repeating on a loop, until the cruiser is finally towed away. Nedley heads back to the station, eyes downcast and wet. Wynonna gives Waverly too much space, and not enough contact. The people by her side try to return to normal, to something else, anything else, but they just can’t. Not yet. 

 

When the music finally stops, the morning is eerily quiet. The sun is barely hanging in the sky, still floating almost sleepily near the horizon line. Purgatory is still a town of bleary-eyed residents, people who know nothing of what has been lost, of who has been lost. They have no idea the world is different, and for the worse. 

 

There’s no more rain. Nicole predicted all of this. 

 

_ “Storms always end, Waverly. This’ll pass, and the world’ll be bright again. You know that, right?” _

 

The words hit differently now. They feel so different in the aftermath. They stick, and dig, and burn. They mean something else, something worse in a way.  _ God, everything hurts.  _

 

Only then, in this moment of bittersweet peace, in this moment of pain she’s never felt this sharply, does Waverly finally let the tears fall. 

 

It wasn’t supposed to end. Not like this. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. Still here, I see. That's good. 
> 
> I just wanted to say thank you for sticking with me. This was a tough one. It was difficult to write, read and edit. Total honesty- I made the mistake of reading the entire fic aloud. It ended with me crying uncontrollably. 
> 
> The impact will likely be far different for me than it may be for you, and that's okay. Truthfully, I wanted to take the opportunity to really step outside of my comfort zone, and try to bring the pain in a real and honest way. I hope you enjoyed it, as difficult as it may be to read. 
> 
> Thank you to my dear beta, madhatt3r404, for editing this after a long and important weekend. You're the best, Hatter.
> 
> Song inspiration for this fic- Rained On by Frightened Rabbit.
> 
> Feel free to share any feedback in the comments, or on Twitter @iwaseliteonce. I'll accept your compliments, anger and caps lock yelling willingly.


End file.
